NIST is releasing a guide that describes procedures for documenting and populating test data on a mobile device before testing a mobile forensic tool—the recovery and interpretation of data found on digital devices is often part of a criminal or civil investigation. Draft NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-202, Quick Start Guide for Populating Mobile Test Devices, is meant to be used with Federated Testing, an expansion of the Computer Forensics Tool Testing (CFTT) Program at NIST, which provides digital forensics investigators and labs with test materials for forensic tool testing. The goal of Federated Testing is to help digital forensics investigators to test tools used in their labs and to enable sharing of test results within the digital forensics community.

The goals of this guide are twofold: 1) provide guidance for how to place test data on a mobile device for use in forensic tool testing and 2) provide guidance to select data elements for inclusion that ensure effective testing. The public comment period for this draft guide ends April 25, 2018. See the publication record for a copy of the document and additional information.